VOL, \v!i MO. sr. 



AND HORTICULTURAL TxEGlSTER. 



293 



be new in this report, is made with the sole view of 

 invitiiisr experiment and improving our modes of 

 cull lire, and they have no doubt that they will re- 

 coils! all the attention and weight which they de- , 



The committee recommend that the statements 

 of those to whom gratuities have been made should 

 be published, with this report in the New England 

 Parmer. All which is respectfully submitted 



By the Committee. 



!!EET SUGAR IN FRANCE. 

 I A very warm dispute is now going on in France 

 I between the West India planters and the raisers 

 and manufacturers of beet sugar. The planters 

 are contending for the reduction of duties upon 

 foreign sugar, while the beet-sugar party demand ] 

 the continued protection of the government of the , 

 domestic ])roduct, by high duties on foreign sugar, 

 as matter of right and essential to the prosecution ! 

 of the growth and manufacture of beet sugar. U e I 

 give below some extracts from a letter of a cor- 

 respondent of the New York American, which we 

 believe to the astonishment of many of our readers, [ 

 will show the vast extent of the product and the j 

 immense interests involved in the case. We re- j 

 gret that we had not room for the insertion of the 

 whole letter. Wo have selected that portion which . 

 is particularly agricultural. I 



"The beet-root planters and manufacturers make | 

 out a very plausible and imposing case. They ap- 

 peal to the original eflbrts and sacrifices in the 

 doubtful enterprise ; to the costly and elaborate j 

 processes in science and art ; to the studied incite- I 

 nicnt and encouragement from the national and de- 

 partmental authorities ; to the political value of 

 their success in rendering France independent for 

 an article which has become a necessary of life. 

 They rely upon such statistics as the following. 

 The capital vested in the business is not less than 

 sixty millions of francs — fifty thousand workmen 

 are employed during the winter, in the factories ; 

 of these, great and small, there are six hundred ; 

 the product, this year, is one hundred and ten 

 millions of pounds, more than half the consump- 

 tion of France; the culture spreads over a 

 space of G0,000 hectares, (the hectare being 

 2.47,n4:j acres;) a multitude of other and 

 very diversified branches of industry are now 

 vitally connected with tliis one so extended. In 

 the departments where it has been established, sloth 

 and mendicity have given place to labor and com- 

 fort Even a single large beet-root-farm and fac- 

 tory has, in every case, changed the whole face of 

 things, in a district, as if by enchantment. Indeed, 

 if we may credit the instances quoted, the amelio- 

 rations would appear wonderful and adniii'able. On 

 the 17th inst., a large manufacturer^ addressing the 

 Supreme Council, related that on an estate where, 

 formerly, he employed seven servants only, and 

 could scarcely feed one hundred sheep, he fed a 

 thousand, and employed fifty workmen, since he had 

 introduced there the beet-root culture. Such facts 

 are calculated to make a deep impression on the 

 Council, and all who know how much agriculture 

 has suflered and remains bebind-hand in France 

 from many causes. A writer for the Journal des 

 Debats, (17th inst.) in an able and curious article 

 on the Iriigation of the Fields enumerates those 

 causes, and adds — " France every body agrees, is 

 essentially an agricultural nation ; and still, not- 

 withstanding the superiority of our soil and climate 

 — notwithstanding the abundance and admirable \ 



distrib ution of our springs, our streams and rivers 

 — oursoil does not yield, proportionably, </ie/oi(H/t of 

 t'le product of that of England." 



The beet-root party protest that the smallest re- 

 duction of the duty on the West India sugar would 

 irretrievably ruin the domestic manufacture ; and they 

 contend that the Executive has not legal faculty to 

 make any change by ordinance ; the whole subject 

 belonging to the legislative power. The question 

 was fully discussed and voted at the last session ; 

 and when a duty of 10 francs per ^ 00 kitogi-ftnuries, 

 (the kilogramme being 205.5 lbs. avoirdupois,) for 

 the first year, and 15 for tlie second, was imposed 

 upon the indigenous sugar, it was implied that no 

 alteration was to be attempted within two years at 

 least. Upon that presumption, new fields had been 

 planted ; new factories erected : large investments 

 hazarded. 



The domestic manufacturers are not unwilling 

 that the Colonies be allowed to carry their sugar to 

 other countries, for then, in due time, they would 

 get possession of the whole French market ; but 

 the Colonial delegates observe — " if we have so- 

 licited that privilege, it is because we despaired of 

 relief in France ; the measure showed the hard- 

 ship of our condition ; it did not argue that ve re- 

 lied upon the efficacy of the privilege ; we felt driv- 

 en to the necessity of seeking any chance — taking 

 any price for our products where it could be ob- 

 tained." Perish the Colonies, provided we prosper, 

 is the import of much that has been enumerated 

 on the side of the home-manufacturer. 



Both parties menace the Government with their 

 respective fifty or sixty thousand workmen. I have 

 given you a specimen of this, in the language of 

 the trading body of Paris. The subjoined article 

 from a newspaper of St. Qucntin, a large manu- 

 facturing town of the Department de L'Aisne, is 

 another of like import. " Strong symptoms break 

 out of the discontent which tlie news of an early 

 reduction of the duty on Colonial sugars has excit- 

 ed in our meridian. The manufacturers of native 

 sugar have met, and many of them have proposed, 

 in the event of the threatened measure, that the 

 excisemen should be prevented from entering the 

 manufactories, and levying the tax to which indi- 

 genous manufacture is subject." This proposed 

 forcible resistance to the law indicates a spirit 

 which the Government must defy. Nullifica- 

 tion has its advocates every where, and on both 

 sides of the Tariff question. Lafayette quotes a 

 maxim of Hernadotte, that the French should be 

 ruled "with an iron hand and a velvet glove." 



DISPUTED TERRITORY IN MAINE. 



The subjoined is an extract from the report of 

 the commissioners sent by order of the state of 

 Maine to examine the territory now in controversy 

 between the United States and Great Britain. We 

 think it will be interesting to our readers. 



"I he soil in the region round about the Nothwest 

 angle of Nova Scotia, and on the line, appears to 

 be of excellent quality, covered with a heavy 

 growth of fir, spruce, yellow, black and white hircli, 

 mountain ash, cherry trees and a very few pines. 

 In some places the hard wood predominates, but 

 more generally the evergreen, particularly in the 

 vallies. The soil is free from stones of any con- 

 siderable size, and rocks and ledges, none appear- 

 ing above the surface, and where trees have been 

 turned up by the wind, the soil appears to be of a 

 reddish color, in which are intcr.nixed fragments of 

 reddish sand stone and slate. 



" The land on the river St. John and its tril)uta- 

 ries is also of excellent quality ; the soil is gener- 

 ally of a deep rich loam and free from stones; the 

 ridges or swells of land are covered with a heavy 

 growth of timber. But fiMv inhabitants are settled 

 upon it, perhaps three thousand or thereabouts, and 

 where they cultivate it, their labor is abundantly 

 rewarded, in the large crops of wheat, barley, buck- 

 wheat^ oats, potatoes, hay, &c. Its great freedom 

 from stones, renders tlie cultivation easy. Pine 

 timber is abuiulant on the river St. John and its 

 branches, all of which are navigable for the trans- 

 portation of supplies and the driving of logs nearly 

 to their sources, and there is also an abundance of 

 water power for mills. The resources of the coun- 

 try are great ; whetlier its soil or its timber bo con- 

 sidered, no equal portion of tiie state bears any 

 comparison to it, and more than one half of the 

 whole pine timber in the state is upon it. 



" It may also be worthy of a passing remark, 

 that the southeasterly lake at the head of the Ala- 

 guash river is higher probably thirty feet, tlian a 

 lake opposite called Webster's pond, at the head of 

 one of the branches of the east branch of Pe- 

 nobscot river. The distance from lake to lake, ia 

 half a mile, tlie land is low, and to every appear- 

 ance a canal may be cut across at a small expense 

 If a dam were to be built at the outlet of the Bam- 

 chenungemook lake, and a canal cut, the timbej-, 

 from a great tract, which abounds in excellent pine 

 timber, may be sent down the Penobscot river. 



ICE AND ICE HOUSES. 

 In answer to your request for information as to 

 the best plan of building ice houses, I will merely 

 inform you that I have an ice house that has been 

 used by my family for about fifty years, and has , 

 never failed to preserve an abundance of ice for 

 our supplies. It is about IG by 12 feet, and judg- 

 ing from recollection, for it is now nearly half full, 

 is about JC feet deep. It was probably dug down 

 to the sandier gravel, is walled like an oidinary 

 cellar, the 'v all extended about 3 feet above the 

 level of the adjacent ground, and earth thrown 

 against it nearly to the roof. This serves to pre- 

 serve a uniform temperature and prevents leakage 

 from rain, &c. The bottom of the cellar is sup- 

 plied with pieces of timber, say 8 by 8 inches thick, 

 which arc placed about inches apart and this pro- 

 tects the ice from the influence of the earth below, 

 Whe the ice is being put in I take care to have the 

 bottom and sides, well provided with eiean rye 

 straw, and have the ice occasionally broken fine, 

 and when the house is full I have it well covered 

 up with the same material. This is all that is 

 necessary to be particular about. As the straw is 

 a non-conductor of caloric, and the ice being well 

 imbedded therein does not melt in the warmest 

 weather. Many years ago this house was lined 

 with board which was only useful as a harbor foj 

 rats. The lining gradually decayed and has long 

 since been removed, and still the ice is kept as 

 well as ever. Give your ice a dry cellar and plenty 

 of rye straw, and rest assured yon will require 

 neither tar nor pulverized charcoal, no-r boards to 

 keep it cool. A Phil. Co. Farmer. 



ExTRAORDiNvRY Cow. A COW. the property of 

 Mr F. Kent of Springfield, Ms. during sixty days 

 commencing June last, gave one thousand three 

 hundred and fortysix quarts of milk ! averaging 

 twentyfive and a quarter quarts of milk per day. 

 The largest yield was eleven quarts in the morning 

 and eleven in the evening. 



